Word: fines
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Graceful, great-nosed John Gielgud had chosen for the background of his fine impersonation some rather sombre, common place sets and costumes of Stuart England. Equally commonplace is the gaudier Howard mise en scène which represents 11th Century Denmark. The two productions, however, are separated by more than five centuries of decorating history...
Except for the wooden character of its central figure, The Chronicle of Aaron Kane contains all the ingredients of a racy historical romance. The work of a portrait painter whose first novel, South, was published last year, it is illustrated with fine handsome color reproductions of Frederick Wight's Cape Cod portraits, runs to 559 well-filled pages. But for readers these graces will not compensate for the lack of any human rattle and recklessness in hard-pressed Aaron Kane. Heroes and heroines of historical romance may be as incredible as Anthony Adverse or as absurd as Scarlett...
...over, Mavis Arden decides that she will take the young inventor back to Hollywood. Her plan is frustrated by Pressagent Stevens. By dangling tiny garments in front of her, he convinces her that the young man's fiancée is pregnant, causing Mavis to snort: "Fine goings on around here!" By the time she learns that the young man's relations with his fiancée are not premature, the situation has considerably changed. She loses interest in both the inventor and the Congressman, rides off wrapped around the pressagent. Greater than her importance...
Having missed the book the critic cannot say how faithfully the movie reproduces the original "Anthony Adverse," but the Hollywood version just misses being a fine show...
...actors are competent, but in the first half the movie drags greatly. Action is fast and moving after Anthony's return to Europe, and the last part of the picture is fine entertainment. The movie simply takes too long to get started...